Article by
Barbados Today

Published on
January 16, 2018

Bajans are among the most literate and intelligent people in the world; yet for some reason we have a tendency to keep quiet about issues of public and moral outrage until the proverbial sh*t hits the fan. Such is the case with the sewage crisis in Barbados.

According to UNICEF and the World Health Organization (2008), 100% of our population has access to improved sanitation—but upon further investigation, one would find that what this really means is that we are not sharing public toilets and defecating in pits and buckets. One might consider whether this is fitting benchmark at our stage of development.

The UN/ WHO definition of improved sanitation is the “commendable” standard that has masked the fact that the vast majority of tax payers in this country have no access to a public sewage system— and never have— and that most of the waste that we produce never gets treated.

The panic and fury of the past few months have been fueled by misconceptions and half-truths. It is not to say that we should not be legitimately angry or afraid, but my premise here is that our current problems are more realistically attributable to a case of chickens coming home to roost rather than the breakdown of what was once an effective system.

The following are the top five misconceptions surrounding our lack of understanding and misplaced anger.

Misconception #1: Our sewage system is a centralized public system

Centralization occurs when public spending is funded by general taxation and all parishes receive a share in that public good. This is not applicable to our local sewage system. There is no access to centralized sewage treatment for the majority of the population, nor is there a public-private partnership that provides effective sewage treatment to the non-centrally serviced parts of the island.

Barbados has approximately 4,500 sewerage connections that serve less than 15 per cent of the population (Nurse et al., 2012). More than 85 per cent of the population (including those on the “Platinum” Coast of Barbados) rely on alternate, on-site wastewater treatment, which is largely inadequate in terms of managing conventional water pollutants such as nitrogen. Most of the waste from older homes is disposed into the subsurface and often end up in the marine environment.

Plans to construct a tertiary treatment plant on the West coast, which would serve a further 15 per cent of the island and would treat and reuse water for various purposes— an essential and forward looking technology for a water scarce country— have never gone beyond the planning phase.

The South Coast sewage crisis is not the real public health and environmental scandal; the actual atrocity is that this country has never had an effective publicly managed system in place to deal with the liquid waste of the vast majority of its population.

Misconception #2: We treat our liquid waste

Minister of Water Resource Management, Dr David Estwick, has been promising that the huge pile of doodoo that has come to surface on his portfolio would eventually be treated and reused via tertiary treatment methods. Said Estwick, “We have to stop moving to treat water and sending it out into the ocean. We are moving to treat our sewage and our effluents to tertiary standards and then introduce acquifer recharge. No longer will we be sending three-million gallons of water into the ocean that can be brought back on land to supplement the water in our acquifers.”

The minister is correct that we should be treating and reusing our water, but he is inaccurate in his assertion that we are currently treating it— only 10 per cent of sewage that Bajans create ends up in the public system and of this, less than half receives some degree of treatment. Currently the only plant that treats water to a secondary level is that in Bridgetown which serves just over a thousand Bajans (12 per cent of the Bridgetown area) and has a capacity of approximately 9,000 cubic meters/day. The South Coast plant services more than twice the amount of people but is a primary plant and does not treat waste.

In 2014, David Estwick went on record to say of the South Coast Plant, “I think it was an error to have built the plant at a primary stage. A primary stage plant is nothing more than a filter. So all you are doing is taking up rocks and sludge. So you fooling yourself that you treating the water.”

Untreated sewage may contain nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus; solids including organic matter, pathogens such as bacteria and viruses, worms and parasites and toxic chemicals.

Misconception #3: Our water was not polluted before the sewage crisis

Most people would remember in 2016 when Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy and Minister of Health John Boyce were seen diving in the waters at Worthing Beach, in an effort to reassure the public that the water was “safe”. What they failed to understand was that those waters were polluted long before the public outcry that they were trying to suppress.

The primary local source of land-based pollution of the marine environment is actually sewage from domestic septic wells that is untreated and often contains a range of chemicals, nitrates and phosphates, all of which pose a threat to human health and marine life— this is the method of waste management used by the majority of the population.

Nitrates have been a major concern for Barbados’ groundwater for some time (Burnside, 2011) and according to the Barbados Water Authority, levels have been rising throughout the island. The World Health Organization’s limit of 10 mg/L has been exceeded in certain areas of the island with one sample in St. Michael showing a reading of 18.1 mg/L in 2009.

Further evidence that our waters have been contaminated for a long time appears in a study conducted in 2003 that found that our coral reefs have been impacted by eutrophication, an enrichment of water by nutrient salts that has caused structural changes to the ecosystem off the Barbados coastline. (Linton & Warner).

Misconception #4: The prevalence of gastroenteritis is alarming as compared to previous periods

Based on syndromic surveillance, the number of gastroenteritis (AGE) cases reported to date is no higher than usual for this time of year; viral gastrointestinal illness has been shown to peak in the winter. Barbados’ average annual incidence is approximately 650 cases of AGE per 100,000 population; the economic burden has been crudely estimated to be as much as 16.5 million Barbados dollars (US$ 8.26 million) annually.

Misconception #5: The South Coast Treatment Plant is dated

In his discussions with the media, Estwick has indicated that “significant” development has occurred in the South coast area since the 1990s when the current sewage plant was constructed. He has attributed this boom to the deterioration of the distribution network and the failure of support structures.

These statements are not entirely accurate.

Although the South coast sewage project did indeed begin in the latter part of the 1990’s, the piping system was actually constructed in 2002 and the South coast sewage system became operational in 2003, which is not old for an infrastructural project.

The south coast system was designed and constructed to accommodate up to 3,000 domestic and commercial connections, and has never served at its full capacity; at present it only services approximately 2,500 connections.

There was a great deal of controversy surrounding logistics and operations during the procurement and construction phase of the South Coast project. One might speculate whether the real issue is that the system was substandard to begin with.

So there you have it.

Bajans do have a right to be angry but, moreso, for the fact that we have been operating under the misconception that things have all of a sudden gone askew. The sh*t that intoxicates our senses and our emotions has been bubbling under the lid of a dysfunctional pot for quite some time.

There is a lot of sh*t to be angry about— but, you should have been angry a long time ago.

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12 thoughts on “The real problem on the South Coast”

John Everatt

This article really hits the nail on the head. Every time I have heard the government speak about this I hear how old the system is. But I remember in 1999 the streets being dug up and it did not become operational until several years after that. So I could never imagine that a sewage system would have needed to be replaced after less than 20 years.

As far as the water quality, I contracted gastro over this last weekend (I live in Hastings) and the doctor told me that he sees many cases of gastro every week from the south coast. The only common variable that he could see was the water and he advised me to boil my drinking water (including ice cubes). I am now doing that so if you people choose to think that our politicians are credible carry on. If not please boil your water.

This article really hits the nail on the head. Every time I have heard the government speak about this I hear how old the system is. But I remember in 1999 the streets being dug up and it did not become operational until several years after that. So I could never imagine that a sewage system would have needed to be replaced after less than 20 years.
As far as the water quality, I contracted gastro over this last weekend (I live in Hastings) and the doctor told me that he sees many cases of gastro every week from the south coast. The only common variable that he could see was the water and he advised me to boil my drinking water (including ice cubes). I am now doing that so if you people choose to think that our politicians are credible carry on. If not please boil your water.

the more we read the more we get to know and understand.i always said it had to be bad engineering for this problem to be hard to tackle.Now to know that since 2014 Dr Estwick said it was a primary stage and called it a filter.Well we all know filters gets clog and needs replacing or cleaning on a regular basis. most of the critic should shut up,because they criticize and cant offer any suggestion.as far as i can see now, they have two option,add more pumps with larger psi with constant inspection or replace the system
this design had to fail in an area of this magitude

the more we read the more we get to know and understand.i always said it had to be bad engineering for this problem to be hard to tackle.Now to know that since 2014 Dr Estwick said it was a primary stage and called it a filter.Well we all know filters gets clog and needs replacing or cleaning on a regular basis. most of the critic should shut up,because they criticize and cant offer any suggestion.as far as i can see now, they have two option,add more pumps with larger psi with constant inspection or replace the system
this design had to fail in an area of this magitude

I would like to see someone who knows how, to effectively mobilize citizens and permanent residents in a way that will move this problem towards a solution. This group should include those who have knowledge and understanding of this problem and how to fix it, those who have the financial resources to assist with the cost, and those with trustworthy accountancy skills to ensure the donations are accounted for. People who live or play in Barbados have a responsibility to step up to the plate and Government needs to be pressure to do what they are paid to do – and that is to ACT in the best interest of the island and its inhabitants.
Cudda, shudda, wudda, does not help. Bajan’s are by nature conservative and non-assertive but there must be people living there who can assist in taking action. Talking is not going to send this away.

I would like to see someone who knows how, to effectively mobilize citizens and permanent residents in a way that will move this problem towards a solution. This group should include those who have knowledge and understanding of this problem and how to fix it, those who have the financial resources to assist with the cost, and those with trustworthy accountancy skills to ensure the donations are accounted for. People who live or play in Barbados have a responsibility to step up to the plate and Government needs to be pressure to do what they are paid to do – and that is to ACT in the best interest of the island and its inhabitants.
Cudda, shudda, wudda, does not help. Bajan’s are by nature conservative and non-assertive but there must be people living there who can assist in taking action. Talking is not going to send this away.

We should differentiate between the root cause and the apparent symptoms. The sewage in the streets is the obvious symptom. However, we need to also solve the root cause. How do we do this?

The problem is either that the infrastructure was poorly designed to be a high-maintenance plant and network, or poorly constructed and the defects are now causing significant problems, or poorly maintained, or combinations of all of these.

An examination of the as-built drawings can identify any design defects and areas of high vulnerability, which can then be corrected. An examination of the construction inspection records can identify the construction defects, which can then be corrected. An examination of the maintenance records can identify the current symptoms.

Hence, by addressing the root cause of the problem, we solve the symptoms. It is analogous to addressing a problem with flooding. You can either appear busy by bailing water from one part of the flooded area to the next, or someone can examine the network drawings, go upstream and shut off the open faucet. Then the persons bailing water can be more effective.

It seems that the drawings are a matter of national security, so we can expect to keep playing with the symptoms until Solutions Barbados is elected.

We should differentiate between the root cause and the apparent symptoms. The sewage in the streets is the obvious symptom. However, we need to also solve the root cause. How do we do this?
The problem is either that the infrastructure was poorly designed to be a high-maintenance plant and network, or poorly constructed and the defects are now causing significant problems, or poorly maintained, or combinations of all of these.
An examination of the as-built drawings can identify any design defects and areas of high vulnerability, which can then be corrected. An examination of the construction inspection records can identify the construction defects, which can then be corrected. An examination of the maintenance records can identify the current symptoms.
Hence, by addressing the root cause of the problem, we solve the symptoms. It is analogous to addressing a problem with flooding. You can either appear busy by bailing water from one part of the flooded area to the next, or someone can examine the network drawings, go upstream and shut off the open faucet. Then the persons bailing water can be more effective.
It seems that the drawings are a matter of national security, so we can expect to keep playing with the symptoms until Solutions Barbados is elected.